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THE CHURCH,
AND
ITS
REFORM.
A REPRINT.
PUBLISHED BY THOMAS SCOTT,
MOUNT PLEASANT, RAMSGATE.
1867.
Price, One Shilling, post free.
��THE
CHURCH, AND ITS REFORM.
■-------------- ♦--------------
T) ACON says, “ If St John were to write an Epistle
JD to the Church of England, as he did to that of
Asia, it would surely contain the clause, I have a few
things against thee / ” I am not quite of his opinion.
I am afraid the clause would be, I have not a few things
against thee.' These are the words of Dr Jortin.—
(See his Tracts, vol. i. p. 350.)
“ In England we certainly want a reform in the
ecclesiastical part of our constitution. Men’s minds,
however, I think are not yet generally prepared for
admitting its necessity. A reformer of Luther’s
temper and talents would, in five years, persuade the
people to compel the Parliament to abolish tithes, to
extinguish pluralities, to enforce residence, to confine
episcopacy to the overseeing of dioceses, to expunge
the Athanasian Creed from our Liturgy, to free Dis
senters from Test Acts, and the ministers of the
establishment from subscription to human articles of
faith. These and other matters, respecting the church,
ought to be done,” &c.
Thus Watson, Bishop of Llandaff, delivered his
sentiments, in a letter to the Duke of Grafton, in the
year 1791.*
One of the most remarkable of the sentiments here
expressed is the belief of the power which a single
advocate of reform, of the proper stamp, might exert
* See ‘Watson’s Memoirs,’ p 256.
B
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The Church, and its Reform.
on the public mind in England, and through the public
mind on the House of Commons, and through the House
of Commons on all that is faulty in our public institu
tions. “ A reformer of Luther’s temper and talents
would in five years ” (in 1791, be it observed, when
the minds of men were ill-prepared) “ persuade the
people to compel the parliament,” &c. The great
characteristics of Luther were courage, activity, and
perseverance ; for in intellectual endowments he was
equalled by many of his contemporaries ; and by some,
Melancthon and Erasmus for example, surpassed"
We mention this, and request attention to it, as a
matter of encouragement to those whose minds are
elevated and blessed with the love of reform. It re
quires, they may see, but the will in any individual of a
class, which now is numerous, to be the author of
blessings, analogous to those achieved by him who
among mortals was the greatest benefactor of the
human race.
Among the reforms which five years of proper exer
tion might bring about, in the ecclesiastical part of
our institutions, the Bishop enumerates the abolition
of tithes, the extinction of pluralities, the compulsion
of residence, the confinement of episcopacy (meaning,
literally, overlooking or superintinding) to the appro
priate function which the name denotes; besides
these, erasing the Athanasian Creed from the Liturgy,
abolishing the Test Acts and subscription to Articles
of Faith.
Forty-four years*’ have passed over our heads, and,
of all this, how much has been done ? We have
abolished the Test Acts ! And yet the people are
accused of being too impatient for reform ; as indi
cating, by their impatience, a desire to destroy religion
•—aye, and government along with it.—And so they
would be if they were only to complain of a single
bad thing once in a hundred years.
* "Written in 1835.
�The Church, and its Reform.
3
The Bishop is far from intending here a systematic
view of the bad things in onr ecclesiastical machinery.
He mentions a parcel of particulars, by way of exem
plification, and ends by saying, 1 these, and other
matters' &c. We know that he laid great stress on
one thing which is here not mentioned at all; reduc
ing emoluments of the overpaid priests of all descrip
tions, and giving something more to the class whom
the clergy think sufficiently paid with a beggarly
pittance.
The time is come, when a service of unspeakable
importance would be rendered to the community, by
a foil and detailed exposition of the good which might
be done by a well-ordered and well-conducted clergy;
of the want of good in any shape derivable from our
present ecclesiastical corporation, while it is the peren
nial source of evil to an incredible amount. We
shall enter into some details, to give a clearer view of
what we recommend to others, and earnestly desire to
see accomplished.
We shall begin with some illustrations of the pro
position, that the present ecclesiastical establishment
in England is a perfect nullity in respect to good, but
an active and powerful agent in the production of evil.
It is one of the most remarkable of all the instances
which can be adduced of the power of delusion, when
well supported by artifice and power—that, up to this
hour, an institute, truly characterized by the terms
we have just applied to it, should be still looked upon
as a fabric, venerable for the benefits which it confers
upon the people, at whose charge it is upheld.
It has not the look, the colour, not even one of the
outward marks, of an institution intended for good.
The world, at least the Protestant world, needs no
information respecting the abuses of the Romish
Church. That ecclesiastical establishment had been
reared up into a system, most1 artfully contrived for
rendering men the degraded instruments and tools of
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The Church, and its Reform.
priests; for preventing the growth of all intellect
and all morality ; for occupying the human mind with
superstition; and attaching the very idea of duty to
nothing but the repetition of ceremonies for the glori
fication of priests.
. At the time of the great revolt from the dornina,.
tion of the Romish priesthood, while other countries
broke down and struck off, some more, some less, but
all a great part of the machinery, by which the
Romish Church had become the curse of human
nature, the English clergy embraced that machinery
very nearly as it stood, have clung to it ever since
with the most eager attachment, praised it to the
skies, and done whatever they could in the way of
persecution against all who condemned it.
Look at the facts, and see how distinctly they sup
port this representation.
Did not our church-makers retain the same order of
priests? archbishops, bishops, deans, prebendaries,
rectors, vicars, curates; with the same monstrous
inequality of pay ?
Did they not retain the very same course of clerical
service—nay, the very same book of formularies,
doing little more than translate the Mass-book into
the English Liturgy ?
Renouncing allegiance to a foreign head was the
principal part of the change which took place in
England, and the abolition of the religious houses, to
satisfy the rapacity of the king and the nobles. But
the employment and duties of the clergy remained as
before, with some little alteration. The Church of
England parson has less to do than the Romish
priest; and being allowed to involve himself in the
cares of a family, has a mind less devoted to the con
cerns of his place.
If the Romish establishment was not framed for the
production of good, but was an exquisitely-fashioned
instrument for the production of evil, is it not certain
�The Church, and its Reform.
$
that the English establishment, which consists of the
same integrant parts, must very closely resemble it
in its tendencies ?
Let us look at this subject a little more closely.
Can anything be a greater outrage upon the sense of
propriety; a more profligate example of the contempt
of public good; than to see a concatenation of
priests, paid in proportions ranging from the height
of princely revenues, down to less than the pay of a
common footman ; without even a pretence that the
duties of the most miserably rewarded portion are
less onerous or less important than those of the set
who are paid with so immoral and disgraceful a
prodigality ?
The next thing which solicits the attention of all
rational men, is the work which the English clergy
are called upon to perform for this pay; exhibiting,
in their extreme, the opposite views of extravagance
and deficiency.
We undertake to maintain the two following pro
positions : First, that the only services which are
obligatory upon the Church of England clergy, and
regularly performed, are ceremonies, from which no
advantage can be derived. Secondly, that the ser
vices they might render, in raising the moral and
intellectual character of the people, are not obliga
tory, but left wholly to their option, to do, or not to
do ; that they are performed always most imperfectly,
and in general not at all. Let us go to the particulars.
The services obligatory on the Church of England
clergymen are, the Sunday service, performing the
ceremony of baptism, that of marriage, and that of
the burial of the dead.
To estimate the value of them, let us see wherein
they consist.
The Sunday service. That consists almost wholly in
the repetition of certain formularies; read out of a
book called, the Book of Common Prayer. On this
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The Church, and its Reform^
part of the duty (the work is actually called duty) of
the Church of England priest, the following observa
tions are inevitable.
1. The repetition of forms of words has a tendency
to become a merely mechanical operation, in which
the mind has little concern. To whatever extent the
repetition of religious formularies becomes mechani
cal, it is converted into an unmeaning ceremony.
2. The formularies themselves are of the nature of
mere ceremonies. They consist of creeds; of short
sentences called collects, which are commonly words
of Scripture thrown into the form of ejaculations, or
petitions to God; prayers, especially the Lord’s
Prayer ; and extracts from the Bible. It is needless
to mention the Communion Service, because, except
ing the purely mechanical part, handing what is to
be eaten and drank, it consists of the same things.
It is necessary to bestow a short examination on
each of those particulars.
Of the repetition of creeds, the best thing which
can be said is, that it is purely ceremonial. If it is
not ceremonial, it is far worse : it is a forced decla
ration of belief—in other words, an instrument for
generating the worst habit which can be implanted
in the human breast—the habit of saying the thing
which is not—the habit of affirming as a matter of
fact, that which is not a matter of fact—the habit of
affirming that a man is conscious of a state of mind,
when he is not conscious of it.* This is to poison
* There may be chicaning on this subject; but no candid man, who
really understands the human mind, will hesitate in assenting to the fact
which is here affirmed, that a man is not conscious of that state of mind,
called belief, with respect to everything contained in the several creeds
in the Prayer Book—perhaps in any one of them, every time he is called
upon to pronounce them : above all, when he is first called upon to do
so. A verbal assent is not belief. Belief implies ideas, and the perception
of their being joined together according to the principles of reason.
“Strictly speaking,” says Berkeley, “to believe that which has no mean
ing in it is impossible........... Men impose upon themselves, by imagining
that they believe those propositions which they have often heard, though
at bottom they have no meaning in them.”—Priwiples ofHuman Know
ledge, § 54.
�T he Church, and its Reform*
morality in the very fountain of life. The fine feel
ing of moral obligation is gone in a mind wherein
the habit of insincerity is engendered: nay, more—
every man who is possessed of that fatal habit pos
sesses an instrument for the perpetration of every
other crime. Mendacity is the pander to the breach
of every obligation.
The collects, which are short sentences—mostly
words of Scripture, thrown into the form of ejacula
tion or petition—we may take along with the
prayers ; and of the whole lot together we may affirm,
that if it is not ceremonial, and without meaning, it
is a great deal worse.
The most important, by far, of all the religious
sentiments is—the distinct, and steady, and perpetu
ally operative conception of what is implied in the
words, Almighty Being of perfect wisdom and good
ness. Without this, there is no religion. Supersti
tion there may be, in perfection. Priestism is its
nature; it is a contrivance of priests, and always
manufactured for their ends. When deluded people
are made to think ill of the Divine Being, they are
in the hands of the priests, and can be made to do
whatever the cunning of the order prescribes to
them.
The tendency of the Church of England prayers is
to give a wrong notion of the Divine attributes ; and
instead of the idea of a Being of perfect wisdom and
goodness, to present the idea of a being very imper
fect in both. To speak of them in the most general
way, we may observe, that perpetually to be asking
God for things which we want, believing that this is
a way to obtain them, implies the belief that God
is imperfect both in wisdom and goodness. Telling
God unceasingly of our wants, implies that he needs
to be told of them—otherwise it is an unmeaning
ceremony. Asking Him continually to do things for
us, implies our belief that otherwise he would not do
�8
The Churchy and its Reform.
them for ns; in other words, our belief, either that
God will not do what is right, if he be not begged
and entreated to do so—or that, by being begged
and entreated, he can be induced to do what is
wrong.
In like manner, in regard to praise, which is the
other element of what is called prayer: first, what
use can there be in our telling the Divine Being,
that he has such and such qualities; as if he was like
to mistake his own qualities, by some imperfection
in his knowledge, which we supply ? Next, what a
mean and gross conception of the Divine nature is
implied in supposing that, like the meanest of men,
God is delighted in listening to his own praises!
Surely, practices which have this tendency, if they
are considered as having any meaning at all, it is
much better to consider as having no meaning—that
is, as being mere ceremonies.
The Divine Author of our religion everywhere
indicates his opinion, that praying is nothing but a
ceremony: he particularly marks praying, as one
among the abuses of that sect among his country
men, who carried their religious pretensions the
highest, and whom he considered it his duty to repro
bate as the most worthless class of men in the
nation.
It is matter worthy of particular remark, that
Jesus nowhere lays stress on prayer as a duty: he
rarely speaks of it otherwise than incidentally. With
that condescension to the weakness and prejudices
of his countrymen, which is everywhere observable
in his conduct, he does not reprobate a practice, to
which he knew they had the attachment of an in-vin
cible habit; but by placing it among the vices of the
Pharisees, he indicated with tolerable clearness what
he thought of it.
It would seem, if we take his own words and ex
ample for authority, not the interested interpretation
�The Church, and its Reform.
9
of priests — that lie actually forbade the use of
prayer in public worship. Let us observe how he
gave warning against the abuse of this ceremony, in
the Sermon on the Mount, and how clearly and incontrovertibly he characterized it as a ceremony, and
nothing else: <£ And when thou prayest, thou shalt
not be as the hypocrites are : for they love to pray
standing in the synagogue ” (that is, in public wor
ship) “ and in the corners of the streets, that they
may be seen of men. Verily, I say unto you, they
have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest,
enter into thy closet; and when thou hast shut thy
door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and the
Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee
openly.”
Nothing can be clearer than this: all prayer is
reprobated but secret prayer, and even that is not
recommended. The words always are, “ when ye
pray ”•—that is, if ever ye do pray, do it in secret,
the whole turn of the expression being permissive
only, not injunctive. It is remarkable, with respect
to this limitation of prayer to secret prayer only,
that Jesus himself never makes a prayer on any
public occasion; and as often as he is represented in
the Gospels as praying, which is very rarely, he
withdraws even from his disciples, and does it in
absolute solitude. Jesus goes on—“ But when ye
“ pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathens do ;
“ for they think that they shall be heard for their
“ much speaking. Be not ye, therefore, like unto
“ them : for your Father knoweth what things ye have
“ need of, before ye ask him.”
This last expression is of peculiar force and signi
ficance : Be not ye like those who think they will be
heard for their much speaking ; since speaking at all
is of no use ; “ your Father knoweth what things ye
have need of, before ye ask him.” Can there be a
more distinct declaration, that prayer is a ceremony
�io
The Church, and its Reform,
only, and not very easy to be kept from being a
hurtful ceremony ?
Jesus subjoins to this declaration of the ceremonial
nature of prayer these words—“ After this manner,
therefore, pray ye ; ” and then comes the formulary
called the Lord’s Prayer, evidently intended as a
pattern to prevent the excesses into which the cere
mony was apt to run. And the words of the pat
tern itself, taken in combination with the words
spoken immediately before—“Your heavenly Father
knoweth,” &c.—afford sufficient evidence, when they
are minutely examined, of the character in which its
Divine Author meant it should be used.
But, as it is too evident to need any illustration
that the idea of the Divine Being, as a being of per
fect wisdom and goodness, so steadily and luminously
fixed in the mind, as to be a principle of action, is the
very essence of religion, and the sole source of all
the good impressions we derive from it, it is not less
evident, that every idea instilled into us, which im
plies imperfection in the Divine Being, is a perver
sion of the religious principle, and so far as it goes,
converts it into a principle of evil. Because, exactly
in so far as men set up for the object of their worship
a being who falls short of perfect wisdom and good
ness, so far they manufacture to themselves a motive
for the practice of what is contrary to wisdom and
goodness. Yet it is self-evident, that to offer peti
tions to the Divine Being, with the idea that they
will have any effect—that everything, being already
ordered for the best, will not proceed in the same
way exactly as if no such petition had been made, is
to suppose the petitioner either wiser or better than
his Maker—either knowing better what is fit to be
done, or more in earnest about the doing of it.
If these observations about the ceremonial nature
of prayer be admitted, there is not occasion to say
much about the rest of the Sunday service. Where
�I"he Church, and its Reform.
II
is the use of a priest to read a chapter of the Bible,
which every head of a family does to those who live
in his house? Besides, the Church of England
always reads the same chapters, thereby inevitably
converting the operation into a ceremony. Are these
the only chapters in the Bible which deserve to be
read ? If not, why read them only, casting a slur
upon the rest ? Again, when anything has been read
sufficiently often to have fixed the purport of it in
delibly in the mind, what is the use of more repe
tition ? It is evidently ceremonial only. With regard
to the Communion Service, we think it is, among
Protestants, considered as a ceremony. Mr Bentham
has endeavoured to show that it was never intended,
either by Jesus or his disciples, to be permanent, even
as a ceremony, and that it is peculiarly ill-fitted for
that purpose; and we have never met with anything
like an answer to his observations, which well deserve
the attention of all rational and honest-minded Chris
tians.
And now we come to the Sermon, the only part of
the Sunday performance which is not essentially cere
monial ; but which may, by misperformance, become
not only ceremonial, like the rest, but positively and
greatly mischievous.
A celebrated wit of the last age, known by the
familiar name of George Selwyn, had gone one day
to church, and was asked when he returned, by some
one in the family to which he was on a visit, of what
sort the sermon had been ? “ Oh,” said he, “ like
other sermons; palavering God Almighty ; and bull
ragging the devil.” This was said, of course, satiri
cally ; and it must be added, considering the subject,
that it was said profanely. But, nevertheless, it must
be confessed, that it describes with great point the
character of at least one grand class of Church of
England Sermons, which consist of terms of praise
heaped unceasingly on the Divinity—terms of con-
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The Church, and its Reform,
demnation heaped as unceasingly on the Personifica
tion of Evil: as if there could be supposed to be an
individual in a Christian congregation not already
prepared to bestow laudatory epithets upon God,
opprobrious epithets on the devil, as far as his power
of language would permit him to go. As no congre
gation, therefore, could possibly be the better for
hearing such a sermon, it is necessary to consider it
as a mere ceremony.
Another grand class of Church-of-England ser
mons consist of what, to borrow (as we may here do
without profaneness) the language of George Selwyn,
we may call palavering the Church of England, and
bullragging the Dissenters ; ascribing good qualities
without end to Church-of-Englandism—evil qualities,
in equal proportion, to Dissenter-ism. This is not
merely ceremonial, certainly; but we may safely pro
nounce it worse—something so bad, that hardly any
thing equal to it in atrocity can be conceived. It is
making religion, which ought to be a principle of
love among human beings, a principle of hatred ; and
that hatred turning upon what ? The great line of
distinction between moral good and evil ? That by
which He who is perfection is mainly distinguished
from the Prince of Darkness ? No, no ! But upon
some difference of opinion in matters of little import
ance, or some diversity in the use of cermonies. Is
not this to vilify, or rather to explode morality ?
setting above it such frivolous things, as sameness of
belief in dubious matters, or sameness of perform
ance in matters of ceremony ? Is not this to renounce
the good of mankind as the grand principle of action,
the main point of obedience to the will of God—
making the service of God a pretence for hostility to
a large portion of his creatures ? Is this a morality,
fit to be promulgated by a man, miserably, or exorbi
tantly paid, in every parish in the kingdom? We
restrain by punishment, and we do well, the publica-
�The Church, and its Reform.
13
tion of indecent books and prints, calculated to
inflame the passions of the inexperienced and unwary.
But these publications are innocent, compared with
the sermons read to congregations, or printed for the
public, to which we now allude.
The extent to which the exercise of this malignant
principle is carried cannot, perhaps, be more clearly
shown than by calling to mind that celebrated Charge
to the clergy of London, by the then Right Reverend
the Bishop of London, afterwards the Most Reverend
the Archbishop of Canterbury, to which Mr Bentham
makes such pointed allusion. “ The prostration of
the understanding and. the will,” there spoken of as
one of the desiderata, one of the objects of desire, and
of endeavour, to the Church of England, Mr Bentham
has commented on with his usual fulness and usual
effect. And all that is necessary for us, in regard to
that generous purpose, is, to refer our readers to the
treat prepared for them in his comment.* Another
expression in the said Charge—is that to which we
desire to direct the reader’s attention in this place.
We borrow the expression from Mr Bentham, other
means of reference not being at hand, but with per
fect confidence, knowing, as we do, what his care of
accuracy in such particulars was. “ In the Charge,”
says Mr Bentham, “we shall see Non-C hurch-ofEnglandists marked out as
and men of
‘guilt.’”—Why, in the name of all that is good,
should Church-of-England men treat as “ enemies ”
all men who cannot subscribe the Thirty-Nine Articles, or join in the performance of their ceremonies ?
Is not this to make religion the curse of human nature
—the permanent fountain of discord—the extinguisher
of love and of peace ? Not to subscribe the ThirtyNine Articles, and not to join in certain ceremonies,
is “ guilt I ” This is to make the Church-of-England
man the general enemy of his species. Sermons, which
* 1 Church of Englandism Examined.’ By Jeremy Bentham, Esq.
�i4
Rhe Church, and its Reform.
propagate this idea, propagate a feeling of hatred, a
disposition of hostility, towards all men but those of
their own particular sect. Is not this to renounce
the religion of Jesus, which is a religion of peace ?
Is not this Antichrist ? Is not this to deny the Lord
that bought them ?—to crucify him in the house of
his friends ? Assuredly sermons of this cast had
better not be delivered.
Another class of sermons are the controversial:
those which undertake to settle points of dogmatic
divinity. We believe that all rational men are united
in opinion, that such discourses, addressed to ordinary
congregations, can be of no use, and have a strong
tendency to be hurtful. They have a direct tendency
to attach undue importance to uniformity of belief on
points on which it is not necessary. They have also
a direct tendency to lower men’s ideas of the Divine
character—representing the Almighty as favouring
those who adhere to one side in the controversy hos
tile to those who adhere to the other. This is to suborn
belief: to create in those who yield to such teaching
a habit of forcing a belief; that is, of dealing dis
honestly with their own convictions. To hold out
rewards for believing one way, punishment for
believing another way, is to hold out inducements
to resist the force of evidence, on the one side,
and lend to it a weight which does not belong
to it, on the other. This is a mode of attaching
belief to any opinions, however unfounded; and as
soon as a man is thoroughly broken in to this mental
habit, not only is the power of sound judgment de
stroyed within him, but the moral character does not
escape uninjured. The man in whose breast this
habit is created, never sees anything in an opinion,
but whether it is agreeable to his interest or not.
Whether it is founded on evidence or not, he has been
trained to neglect. Truth or falsehood in matters of
opinion is no longer with him the first consideration.
�The Churchy and its Reform.
*5
This is nearly the most immoral state of mind
which can have existence in a human being. No
other cause of criminal actions is of equal potency
with this. A man- in this state of mind has an opinion
ready to justify him in any profitable course of
villany in which he can engage. How great a propor
tion of Church-of-England teaching, in pulpits, in
schools, and in universities, has this tendency, and
no other, is a subject of immense importance. Oh,
for a Pascal! Oh, for a new set of Provincial Letters!
We shall pass by the other subdivisions of sermons,
and come to the moral. Though a man of the
proper stamp, residing among his fellow parishioners,
would have other and still more effectual means of
making the impressions on their minds which lead to
good conduct, we do not dispute that a discourse of
the proper kind, delivered to them when assembled
on the day of rest, would have happy effects. In the
first place, it would establish in their minds pure ideas
of the moral character of God; and would root out of
them every notion which implies imperfection in the
Divine Mind. This is a matter of infinite importance,
though neglected, or rather trampled upon by Churchof-England religion ; for exactly in proportion as the
model which men set up for imitation is perfect or
imperfect, will be the performance which takes place
in consequence. It is unavailing, it is pure childish
ness, to call the Almighty benevolent, when you
ascribe to him lines of action which are entirely the
reverse. It is vain to call him wise, when you repre
sent him as moved by considerations which have
weight with only the weakest of men.
We have already seen something of the extent to
which the religion of the Church of England tends to
imprint the notion of imperfection, both of the moral
and intellectual kind, in the character of the Deity.
But there is one particular to which we have hardly
as yet adverted, which deserves the deepest attention.
�16
The Church, and its Reform.
We mean the notions propagated about punishments
after death.
No wise and good man ever thinks of punishment
but as an undesirable means to a desirable end : and
therefore to be applied in the smallest quantity pos
sible. To ascribe to the Divine Being the use of
punishments in atrocious excess ; not applying it
according to the rules of the most perfect benevolence,
which is its character in the hand of a virtuous man,
but in the spirit of revenge, and to vindicate his dignity
is to ascribe to him, not the character of a civilized
man, but of an atrocious savage. Nor is the excess
of future punishments the only point of importance.
The uselessness of them also deserves the utmost
regard in tracing the ways in which priests, for their
own ends, have perverted men’s notions of the Divine
character. Punishment is employed by virtuous men
for the prevention of hurtful actions. But what is the
use of punishment when the time of action is gone by,
and when the doom of the wretched victim is fixed
for ever ? It is said that the apprehension of these
punishments is a restraint on men during their lives.
But to make this allegation is only another mode of
ascribing imperfection, both intellectual and moral,
to the Supreme Being.
It is a certain and undisputed principle, that prox
imity of punishment is necessary to its efficiency;
that if a punishment is distant, and hence the con
ception of it faint, it loses proportionally of its force.
As it is the great rule of benevolence to be sparing in
the use of punishment—that is, to employ it in the
smallest possible quantity which will answer the end
—it is the constant aim of benevolence to make it as
proximate as possible—that is, to make the smallest
possible quantity suffice. What would be thought
of a legislator, who should ordain, that the punish
ment of murder and theft should not take place till
twenty years, or so, after the commission of the
�'The Church, and its Reform,
ly
crime ; and that, for the distance of the time, compen
sation should be made in the severity of the punish
ment ? Is not this the atrocity into which those
theologians sink, who tell us that the punishments of
hell are intended for the prevention of evil in the
present life ? That this theory is not derived from
the Scripture, but is the pure forgery of priests, might
be inferred with certainty d priori, and could also
be easily proved by particular evidence. But the
authority of Bishop Butler will be sufficient for us on
the present occasion. He has given it as his opinion,
an opinion which has never been accused as unscriptural, that the change from the present to the future
life will not, in all probability, be greater than the
change from the state which precedes, to that which
follows the birth; that the individual will pass into
the future life with all the dispositions and habits
which he had acquired in his previous course, pro
ducing misery to him if they are bad, happiness if they
are good ; but with this advantage, that the circum
stances in which he will be placed will have an
irresistible tendency to correct bad habits, and
encourage good ones, whence in time it will be
brought about, that none but good habits will exist,
and happiness will be universal.
Next to the propagation of correct notions regard
ing the character of the Supreme Being, as the per
fection of wisdom and goodness, with warnings
against all such notions as imply imperfection in the
Divine nature, the object of discourses, calculated to
be of real utility to the majority of those who com
pose congregations, would be, to make, and as deeply
as possible, all the impressions which lead to good
conduct; to give strength and constancy to the kindly
and generous feelings; to stimulate the desire of
doing good, by showing the value of it, and the
amount of good which even a very poor man may
effect, in the course of his life, if he seizes the many
c
�i8
The Churchy and its Reform.
little occasions which he will find put in his way; to
make understood and felt the value of a good name r
how much of the happiness of each individual depends
upon the good-will of those among whom he lives;
and that the sure way of obtaining it is to show by
his acts his good-will to them. Such discourses
would put the people on their guard against the misleading affections ; would make them understand
how much is lost by giving way to them ; and with
what a preponderance of good, even to ourselves,
they are supplanted by those which lead us to rejoice
in being the instruments of happiness to others.
Above all things, such discourses would make parents
clearly understand, and acutely feel, the power they
have over the happiness or misery of their children
during the whole course of their lives. On the mode
of creating in their children the habits on which
their happiness depends, such discourses would enter
into the most minute detail. They would carefully
warn parents against every display of feeling or
passion, everything in word, or in action, having a
tendency to produce an undesirable impression on the
tender mind ; and would give them an habitual con
viction, and, as it were, a sense of the importance of
making none but the right impressions.
It is not necessary to go farther in illustrating
what sermons of the useful class would be. It is only
necessary to recollect what the moral class of Church
of England sermons are. Other people may have
been more fortunate than we ; but though we have
heard a good many of that class, we never heard one
which we thought good fcr anything. They may be
characterized as a parcel of vapid commonplaces,
delivered in vague and vapouring phrases, havingnot even a tendency to give men more precise ideas
of the good they may do, or to kindle within them a
more strong and steady desire of performing it. We
have often asked ourselves, after hearing such a ser-
�'The Church, and its Reform.
19
mon, whether any human being could by possibility
have received one useful impression from it; whether
any one could have gone away after hearing it a
better man than when he came; in the least degree
more alive to the motives to good conduct, more
capable of resisting the motives to bad ? Never, in a
single instance, do we remember having been able to
make an answer in the affirmative. For a confirma
tion of the opinion we have thus formed of Church
of England sermonizing, we appeal to the printed
specimens of them, some of which are by men of
considerable ability, skilful advocates of a cause, acute
and eloquent controvertists, but all of them defec
tive, or rather utterly worthless, in moral teaching.
We have now probably said enough to show how
entirely of the ceremonial kind, and ceremonial with
more or less of a hurtful tendency, the whole of the
Sunday services obligatory on the Church of England
clergyman are.
All that reinains is the ceremony of baptism, the
ceremony of marriage, and the ceremony of burying
the dead. These services are so much regarded in
the light of ceremonies, that they commonly go by
that name.
The Church of England indeed pretends, that bap
tism washes away original sin ; one of those cherished
opinions by which it ascribes weakness, both intel
lectual and moral, to the Supreme Being. In this
opinion it is reprobated by other churches, as retain
ing one of the errors of the Romish Church. For
the rest, it cannot be pretended that it is other than
ceremonial. To the infant, who knows nothing about
the matter, it would be ridiculous to suppose that
any good is done. And what can it be pretended is
the good which it does to any other body ? For a
full exposure of the Church of England proceedings
in respect to baptism, we refer to what is said by Mr
Bentham in his Examination of Church of England
�20
The Church, and its Reform.
Catechism, pp. 47 to 59, where the reader will find
both instruction and amusement.
About marriage it is not necessary to say much.
It is in its essence a civil contract; and few rational
men think that the religious ceremony is of any im
portance. It is very certain that nobody regards it
as any security for the better performance of the
duties which the contract implies.
The burial service consists in reading certain por
tions of Scripture and certain prayers. But to whom
.can this performance be considered as being of any
use ? Not certainly to the dead man; and certainly
not to any of the living, excepting those who are
present. And who are they ? Hardly anybody ;
some half-dozen of the dead man’s nearest con
nexions being excepted. If the ceremony were
believed to be of any use to those who witness the
performance of it, means ought to have been em
ployed to bring the people together for that purpose.
No such means have ever been thought of. What
does that declare ? One of two things. Either that
the Church of England clergy are utterly indifferent
to the good which the witnessing of it is calculated
to produce ; orthattbeydo not believe it is calcu
lated to do any good at all.
We have thus examined in some detail the duties
which are exacted of the Church of England clergy,
and the only duties which they can be really considered
as perfoming. The duties, the enforcement of which
is left to conscience, to the desire of doing good, in
the breast of the individual, are for the most part
neglected, and never otherwise than ill performed.
We are far from denying that there are good men
among the working clergy of the Church of England,
notwithstanding the obstruction to goodness which
their situation creates : men who reside among their
parishioners, go about among them, and take pains
to do them good. But these are the small number;
�¥he Church, and its Reform.
21
and they never act systematically and upon a welldigested plan. They are left, unguided, to follow
their own impulses; and often a great part of their
well-meant endeavours is thrown away. They receive
no instruction in the art of doing good. This is no
part of Church of England education. Yet it is an
art towards the perfection of which instruction is of
first-rate importance. Few men are aware of the
whole extent of their means in that respect; and still
fewer judge accurately in what applications of their
means they will prove the most productive.
It
follows, as a necessary consequence, that the amount of
good which a well-intentioned man produces is often
very short of what, if better directed, he would have
been able to effect.
Thus employed, and thus paid, is it any wonder
that the Church of England clergy should have lost
their influence among a people improving, now at
last improving rapidly, in knowledge and intelli
gence ? And when a clergy have lost their influence,
what is the use of them ? The evidence of their total
loss of influence is very striking, when it is faii’ly
looked at and considered. The first fact is the noto
rious one, that one-half of the population have
renounced them as utterly unfit to be their religious
guides, and have chosen others of their own. This
fact speaks inferences far beyond the numerical pro
portions. The Dissenters afford evidence of their
being in earnest about their religion. The Esta
blished Church is the natural sink of all those who are
indifferent about it, and belong to a church for the
sake of the name, as long as there is anything to be
got by it. To this number may be added all those
whose lives are too scandalous to let them be admitted
into any other Christian society. Now, if we say that
not more than every other man in a community is in
earnest about religion, we shall not perhaps be con
sidered as making a very unreasonable supposition.
�The Churchj and its Reform.
But if this be anything like an approximation to the
fact, the members of the Church of England are alm oat,
wholly men who adhere to it either for the sake of the
name, or for the good things which they owe to it, with
a small proportion indeed of those in whose adherence
to it regard for religion has anything to do. The Church
of England therefore exists in no other character than
that of a state engine; a ready and ever-willing instru
ment in the hands of those who desire to monopolize
the powers of government—that is, to hold them for
the purpose of abusing them.
It is useful to mark, among the proofs that the Church
of England exists for no good purpose, that those of the
common people who brutalize themselves with intoxi
cating liquors belong almost wholly to the Church of
England sect. A Dissenter is rarely a notorious drunkard,
with whatever other sins he may be tainted. The coster
mongers are never Dissenters. It would be important
to put means in operation to show what proportion of
the people convicted of crime are Churchmen, and what
Dissenters. Our conjecture would be, that nine in ten
at least are of the Church of England. It would be
easy to ascertain what proportion of parish paupers are
Church of England men, and what Dissenters. And
that, too, would be no insignificant article of evidence.
Though such, however, is the light in which the
Church of England, in its present state, must appear to
every intelligent and honest inquirer, we know what a
clamor will be raised against us for expressing oui’
opinion, by all those who derive their profit from what
is evil in things as they are ; who are therefore attached
to the evil, and bitterly hostile to all who seek to expose
it. With the reasonable and the sincere, we need no
other protection than the evidence we adduce. With
others, it may have some effect, to show them what
eminent men before us have said of the clergy, and of
the inevitable effect of the position in which they are
placed, by a viciously constructed establishment.
�The Church, and its Reform.
23
Dr Middleton, one of the greatest men whom the
Church of England ever produced, has spoken of one of
the most deplorable of the effects of their position, their
hostility to the interests of truth, in the following
terms :—
“Every man’s experience will furnish instances of the
wretched fruits of this zeal, in the bigoted, vicious, and igno
rant part, both of the clergy and the laity; who, puffed up
with the pride of an imaginary orthodoxy, and detesting all
free inquiry, as dangerous to their case, and sure to expose
their ignorance, take pleasure in defaming and insulting men
of candor, learning, and probity, who happen to be touched
with any scruples, or charged with any opinions which they
call heretical.” *
One of the most respectable names to be found in the
list of Church of England clergy is Jeremy Taylor. He
speaks to the same effect, in the following terms:—
“Possibly men may be angry at me, and my design; for I
do all them great displeasure, who think no end is then well
served, when their interest is disserved.” f
“ Opinions are called heresies, upon interest, and the grounds
of emoluments.” J
“ Our opinions commence and are upheld, according as our
turns are served and our interests are preserved.” §
To return again to Middleton, who saw this malignant
disease of the Church of England with peculiar clear
ness :—
“Ido not know how to account for that virulence of zeal,
with which it [the Free Inquiry] is opposed by those writers,
but by imputing it to their prejudices or habitual bigotry, or
to some motives especially of interest; which, of course, bars
all entrance to opinions, though ever so probable, if not
stamped by an authority which can sweeten them with
rewards.” ||
Nothing is of more importance than the repeated, and
earnest, consideration of the fact, that the interest of a
,* ‘Middleton’s Works,’ 4to ed., vol. ii. p. 117.
t ‘ Liberty of Prophesying.’ Epist. Ded.
t IJ>.
§ lb. Introd,
|l ‘ Preface to an Intended Answer to all Objections against the Free
Inquiry.’ Works, 4to ed., p. 374 ; where there is much more tothesame
purpose.
�24
Church, and its Reform,
clergy, in the circumstances in which the Church of Eng
land clergy are placed, is in direct opposition to their
duty, and makes them sworn enemies of the good of
their fellow creatures. They are hired, for the purpose
of propagating a certain set of opinions. They are
sworn to retain them: that is, to keep their minds
stationary in at least one department of thought. And
it is curious to observe how far that creates a motive to
exert themselves to keep the minds of other men station
ary, not in that department only, but in all the depart
ments of thought; to make the clergy the enemies of
all improvement of the human mind. If one set of
men stand still in this improvement, while other men go
on, these men see that they will soon become objects of
contempt. They are sworn to stand still; they, there
fore, detest all those who go on, and exert themselves to
impede their progress, and to discredit their design.
This motive has a cruel extent of operation. To be
bound to stand still, in any line of mental improvement,
is a state of great degradation. The progress of other
men in knowledge gives them a keener sense of this
degradation.
The clergy therefore perceive, that, in
proportion as other men grow wiser, they will sink
deeper in contempt. This gives them a hatred of the
pursuit of knowledge. The search of truth bodes them
evil, and not good : and therefore all their art is employed
to prevent it.
We think, however, that by changes—far from violent,
the Church of England might be converted from an
instrument of evil into an instrument of much good;
and to the consideration of this part of the subject we
now proceed.
We consider a local clergy, distributed everywhere
among the people, as the fundamental part of an insti
tute really intended for moulding the character of the
people, and shaping their actions, according to the spirit
of pure religion. The question then is, what is required
towards obtaining in greatest amount the beneficial
�The Church, and its Reform.
-5
services capable of being derived from such a set of men.
—The very first particular which comes to be noticed,
shows in what a different spirit from that of good to the
people everything relating to the Church of England has
been arranged. It is very clear, that in employing men
to the best advantage in any sort of service, each indivi
dual should have enough to do, and not more than
enough. This care has been wholly renounced by
Church of Englandism, which exhibits the most enormous
disproportions; in one place, parishes far too large for
any individual to manage ; in other places so small, that
a man has little to do in them. A good establishment
would correct this abominable instance of careless and
profligate management.
Next, the men who are to direct the people in the
right path, and make them walk in it as diligently as
possible, should be men capable of doing their work well:
that is, they should, at least, be men of good education
and good character. To this end, it is absolutely neces
sary that they should receive sufficient pay, to be an
inducement to men of that description to undertake the
duties. There is evidence enough to prove that this
need not be high. We do not adduce the curates;
because the baneful lottery of the over-paid places in the
Church draws into it too great a number of adventurers.
But the medical men, of whom one is to be found in
every considerable village, afford evidence to the point,
and that conclusive. Besides, the situation would be
one of great consideration and dignity, as. soon as it came
to be regarded as a source of great utility; and men
with property of their own would be desirous of filling it.
The situation of judges in France is strong evidence to
this point. The pay is so small, that the wonder of
Englishmen always is, how anybody can be found to
accept the situation ; yet the fact is, that it is in request;
and the problem is solved, by learning that men, having
a moderate property of their own, covet the dignity
which the office confers.
�0.6
The Church, and its Reform,
Thus far we have proceeded with no difficulty, and with
very little room for doubt; but having determined the
sort of men we ought to have, we come next to the
question by whom, in each instance, ought they to be
appointed. Three considerations obviously entered into
the solution of this question—the best means of securing
honesty in the selection—the best means of giving satis
faction to the parishioners, without incurring the evils
of a mistaken choice—the not giving too much power to
one individual. The best chance, perhaps, for having
honesty and intelligence in the selection, would be to have
a Minister of Public Instruction, by whom all the appoint
ments should be made. He would act under a stronger
sense of responsibility, conspicuously placed, as he would be,
under the eye of the public, than any other man ; and
in the majority of cases, would not have any interest in
acting wrong. But this would be a great amount of
patronage, possibly too great to exist without danger in
any single hand ; and it is not easy to find an unexcep
tionable mode of distribution. Suppose the patronage
were in each county given to the principal civil authority
in the county, he would be exposed to all the local in
fluences which are known to be so adverse to the virtuous
use of patronage; and acting in a corner with very little
of the salutary influence of publicity, where the choice
was not made by favouritism, it would be very apt to be
made in negligence.
Suppose, however, that this difficulty is got over (it
would interrupt us too much at present to show that it is
not insurmountable), we may assume, that where pro
vision is made for the appointment of a fit minister in
every parish, complete provision is made for the religious
instruction and guidance of the people—provided we can
depend upon the due discharge of the duties which those
ministers are appointed to perform. It has, however,
been generally believed, that the due discharge of the
■duties of the parochial ministers cannot be depended upon
without superintendence. A question then arises, what
�'The Churchy and its Reform.
is the best contrivance for the superintendence of a paro
chial clergy ?
Two methods have been thought of, and are at the
present hour in operation ; the one is, superintendence by
individual clergymen; the other is, superintendence by
assemblies, in which clergy and laity are combined. One
question is, which of these two methods is the best ? and
another question is, whether there may not be a third,
which is better than either ?
The two methods which are now in practice are
exemplified respectively in the churches of England and
Scotland. In England the scheme of superintendence by
individuals has been tried, in Scotland that of superintend
ence by assemblies.
If we were to judge by the event, in these two instances,
the question would be decided very rapidly. The Scot
tish system is proved by experience to have answered, and
not very imperfectly, its end, while it occasions no
expense whatsoever. The English system is at once dis
gracefully expensive, and totally inefficient to its end : it
is an absolute failure, with an enormous burden to the
nation.
We hardly suppose that the proposition we have thus
announced respecting those two churches will be disputed
in regard to either. The general good conduct of the
Scottish clergy, and the absence of flagrant abuses in that
church, is matter of notoriety. The lamentable want of
good conduct, though not universal, among the English
clergy, and the existence of enormous abuses in their
church, is matter of not less notoriety. There is no non
residence in Scotland, and no pluralities. Would such
things have ever begun to exist in England, if the
superintendence by bishops had been good for anything ?
The proportional amount of Dissenterism in Scotland is
small, compared with what it is in England; and has
arisen almost wholly from the people’s dislike of
patronage—a matter over which the clergy had no con
trol, and of which the consequences are not to be imputed
�8
'The Church, and its Reform.
to them. There is nothing of the sort to screen the
English clergy ; and the enormous extent of Dissenterism
in England is evidence—is proof, invincible proof—that
the clergy have not done their duty.
It is not, however, safe to ground a general conclusion
upon individual instances, unless where the reason__ the
rationale of the. instances, applies to other cases. With
respect to superintendence by individuals, the mode of
it adopted in England is so glaringly absurd, so little
leference has it to any rational purpose, that it never
can have been intended to be an instrument of good—to
be a means of obtaining from the local clergy the
greatest amount of useful service to the people at large.
The pay alone is perfect evidence to that effect. Who
ever thinks of getting laborious service from a man on
whom is bestowed an enormous income, which incessantly
invites him to the enjoyment of voluptuous indolence,
without any efficient call for exertion ? Nor is this the
only baneful effect of these enormous incomes : they
cieated a line of separation between the superintending
and the superintended clergy. They constituted them
two castes; and well is it known how their conduct has
conformed itself to the distinction. A. principle of
repulsion was created between them : often enough, it is
true, commuted for prostitute servility on the part of the
lower caste ; and thus morality, by Church of England
culture, was propagated and flourished. There could
rarely be any cordial communication between two classes
of men placed in such relation to one another. No
bishop has an intimate knowledge of the character or
turn of mind of any, except an accidental individual or
two, among those whom he superintends, He does not
go about into the several parishes, to see and inquire
how the clerical duties are performed; he knows nothing
at all about the matter, unless some extraordinary in
stance of misconduct, which makes all the country ring,
should come to his ears.
"
Nor could it be otherwise. Natural causes pride ce
�‘The Church, and its Reform.
q.9
their natural effects. A bishop was intended to be a
great lord: of course he would be governed by the
impulses which govern other great lords. Not one of
these impulses is to go about parishes, seeing whether
clergymen have been as effectual as they might, in train
ing the people under their tuition to bring their children
up well.
The very pretext of any such duty as this is absurd,
when we recollect that these reverend lords have to be
absent from their business of supeiintendence of their
clergy for one full half of their time, by attendance on
their duties (so by an abuse of language they are called)
in Parliament.
As we have seen how it is with the ordinary clergy of
the Church of England—that of the two classes of their
duties, one the ceremonial, another the useful, it is the
ceremonial only which means are used to make them
perform—the useful are left to themselves to perform,
or not perform, as they please ; so it is exactly with the
bishops. There are certain ceremonies they have to go
through: these are obligatory on them. The duty of
vigilantly looking after their clergy—of using means to
get them to do whatever it is in their power to do, to
make their people more virtuous and more happy—is
left to the bishops to do, or not do, as they please ; and
accordingly it never is done—at least, to any purpose :
by the greater part of them it is never thought of.
But it does not follow, because the plan of superin
tendence by individuals was so ill-constnicted by the
Church of England as to make it a source of evil and
not of good, that therefore it is in itself, and radically,
bad. We are inclined to think that it is radically good,
and might be so contrived as to be superior to the Scot
tish method.
We do not think that an assembly is well fitted for
minute inspection ; and that is the only inspection which
is sure of answering its end. An assembly cannot go
about visiting parishes, and ascertaining on the spot
�30
The Church, and its Refortn.
where the clergyman has been to the greatest degree,
where to the lowest degree, useful to his parishioners.
But if we are to employ individual inspectors (the
name bishop means inspector) by what scheme is the
greatest amount of good to be obtained from them ?
One thing is perfectly clear : you must not over-pay
them. An inspector, to be useful, must be a hard
working man : that a very rich man never is. This is
an established rule, though it does not altogether exclude
exceptions. They should be paid higher than the
parochial clergy, because they should be men of such
high character and attainments as might give weight to
their decisions.
Still the business of an inspecting
priest is so much of the same kind with the business of
a parochial priest, that the pay of the one should be a
sort of criterion by which to regulate that of the other.
If the highest pay of a parish priest were, say, 500Z. per
annum, we think 1,OOOZ. per annum should be the
highest pay of an inspector; for we allow no weight
whatsoever to the pretence which is set up with charac
teristic impudence by the friends of public plunder, that
wealth gives efficiency to superintendence. It does no
such thing. A man will pull off his hat with more
hurry, will bend his body lower, will speak in a softer
tone, before the man of great wealth; but he will not
trouble himself to do his bidding one atom the more for
his riches. Is any man so nearly deprived of intellect
as still, though grown to be a man, to need evidence on
this point ? Let him see how the rich are served, even
in their own houses. Are they better served than those
among us whose riches are less ? Do we not know that
the men best served in their houses are not the richest,
but the most sensible men ?
There is another thing to be regarded in the matter of
pay, which, though it appear small intrinsically, is great
by its mode of operation on the human mind. It is
infinitely better that the clergy should be paid in the
way of salary than in the way of estate. Between the
�T.he Church, and its Reform.
31
idea of salary, and the idea of service to be performed
for it, the association is close and strong. Between the
idea of living on the proceeds of an estate, and the idea
of having nothing to do, the association is equally powerful.
And so it must be. In all our experience, we regularly
observe that salary and service go together. We see that
commonly estate and service have no connexion. Hence
it comes, that a man who lives upon an estate seems to
himself to share in the common privilege of those who
live upon estates ; that is, to enjoy himself. No man
who has studied the human mind will doubt that this is
a matter of the greatest importance. If the Church of
England clergy had always been paid by salary, we may
be assured they would not have sunk into the state of
absolute uselessness in which we now behold them.
It is unnecessary to dwell upon the scheme of paying
the clergy by that particular kind of estate called tithe,
because people now pretty well understand it. Of all
conceivable schemes for setting the interest and the
duties of the clergy in direct opposition, this is the most
perfect. And it makes a fearful revelation. It proves,
beyond the possibility of a doubt, that the clergy, and
all those who through so long a series of ages have had
in their hands the power of regulating the payment of
the clergy, have been void even of the desire that the
clergy should be useful. Oh, what an odious thing is
the pretence of caring for religion in the mouths of such
men! Contrast an establishment of men whose busi
ness it would be to go about their parishes, planting
themselves in the hearts of their people, and working
upon their minds to the performing of all good actions,
and the acquiring of all good habits, with an establish
ment of men who go about their parishes, indeed, but
go about raping and rending, demanding what others
are unwilling to pay, carrying strife and hatred along
with them, looked at by their people in the light of ene
mies, not of friends, the very sight of whom is odious,
and in whose mouths advice to their parishioners to be
�32
The Church, and its Reformt
mutually forbearing and helpful could only be treated
with ridicule; and say if the imagination of man can
present any two things of a more opposite character.
Reflect also deliberately who the men are who have so
long strained their lungs, and now do, proclaiming that
this church is “most excellent.” What a help-meet it
must have been for misrule to earn all the protection
which it has received ! That on any other score it has
deserved it, there is hardly impudence enough in the
world now to pretend.
But if it were determined that good inspection and
stimulation were more to be expected from individual
superintendents, properly paid and employed, than from
assemblies, another question would remain to be answered:
whether these inspectors should be clergymen or laymen ?
There are some reasons for thinking that laymen would
be the best. They would be less under the influence of
that feeling which men of a class commonly contract,
and which makes them willing to favour one another, to
make them sympathize with their self-indulgences, and
to screen their neglects. If it be surmised that such
men would be less acquainted than clergymen with the
supposed science of the theologians, we answer, that if
it were so, and it is by no means necessary that it should
be so, for that science is easily learned, it would not,
upon our scheme, be a matter of much importance. For
we do not mean that our parochial clergy should trouble
their parishioners with dogmas. Their business will be
to train them in the habits of a good life; and what is
necessary to that will be judged of fully as well by a
layman as by a clergyman.
Wc have now supposed, that a well-selected person
from the class of educated men has been placed as the
minister of religion in every conveniently-sized district,
called a parish. This we consider as the fundamental
part of a religious establishment. We have next sup
posed that a well-selected person from the class of men
of superior acquirements and intelligence has been
�The Church* and its Reform.
33
appointed the inspector and superintendent of a conve
nient number of clergymen everywhere throughout the
country. We have also spoken a little of the duties of
each, but it is necessary to speak somewhat more in
detail.
In the first place, it is a fundamental part of our
scheme, that a clergy, paid by the state, should, in their
instruction of the people, abstain entirely from the incul
cation of dogmas. The reasons are conclusive. They
cannot inculcate dogmas without attaching undue im
portance to uniformity of belief in doubtful matters ;
that is, classing men as good or bad on account of things
which have no connexion with good conduct; that is,
without derogating from morality, and lessening its
influence on the minds of men.
They cannot inculcate dogmas—at least they never do
—without attaching merit, and the rewards which belong
to it, to belief on one side of a question ; that is, without,
suborning belief, using means to make it exist independ
ently of evidence ; that is, to make men hold opinionswithout seeing that they are true—in other words, to
affirm that they know to be true what they do not know
to be true ; that is, if we may give to the act its proper
name—to He. But a clergy, paid for teaching the
people to live well, should assuredly not do what has a
tendency to make them habitual liars.
To preach the importance of dogmas, is to teach men
to impute imperfection to the Divine nature. It is
according to the perfections of the Divine nature to
approve in his rational creatures the love of truth. But
the love of truth leads a man to search for evidence, and
to place his belief on that side, whatsoever it be, on
which the evidence appears to him to preponderate. The
clergyman who tells him that God likes best belief on
one side, declares to him that God does not like the
honest search of truth.
Oh God! with what perse
verance and zeal has this representation of thy Divine
nature been maintained, by men who, with the same
D
�34
The Churchy and its Reform.
breath, and therefore in the spirit of base adulation, were
calling thee the God of truth!
Upon this ground it surely is proper to interdict the
use of articles. The Articles of the Church of England
are a set of propositions, the strangeness of which we
shall not dilate upon. That, and the history of them,
are both pretty well known. The clergy of the Church
of England subscribe them as propositions which they
are bound to believe. Anything more fraught with
injury to the intellectual and moral parts of man’s nature
cannot be conceived. This is to make men enemies to
truth.
We shall not repeat, what we have so immediately
said, and what we are sure must make a deep impression
on every untainted mind, on the atrocity of giving men
inducements to make a belief, which they have not
derived from evidence. The subscription of articles goes
beyond this. It vouches for future belief. It is a bond,
that the individual subscribing shall for ever after set
his mind against the admission of evidence ; that is,
resist the entrance of truth : in other words, make war
upon it, in the only way in which war upon truth is
capable of being made.
It is a deplorable fact,—which deserves the most pro
found attention, though hithei’to it has not received it,—
that the creation of effectual motives to the hatred of
truth in one department, creates effectual motives to the
hatred of it generally. We have touched upon this point
already. But it deserves further development; for it
stands first in point of importance.
The man who is reduced to the degraded condition of
resisting truth, lives under the painful assurance that he
will be held to be a degraded being, by every man who
sets a high value on truth, and is eager in the pursuit of
it. The pursuit of truth brings thus along with it a
consequence most painful to him. He therefore dislikes
it. He would prevent it, if he could ; and he is stimu
lated to do all that he can to prevent it. If the love
�Rhe Church, and its Reform.
35
•and pursuit of truth should become general, he sees
clearly that he must become an object of general con
tempt. What a motive is this to him to prevent its
becoming general; to smother it in the very birth, if he
can !—See in what perfect obedience to this impulse the
Church of England has always acted! Above all,
explore minutely the cruel ways in which, to this end, it
has abused its power over the business of education !
The whole bent of its tuition is to make its pupils
acquiesce slavishly in a parcel of traditional dogmas, and
instead of awakening the desire of farther progress, to
frighten them at the idea of it; training them to regard
it as a source of boundless evil; and all those who pursue
it, as villains, aiming at the destruction of whatever is
valuable among mankind.
They have thus been constituted the enemies of their
species. The advance of mankind in happiness has, by
a nefarious constitution of their church, been made a
■source of evil to them. And they have been, as it was
certain they would be, its strenuous, and, to a deplorable
extent, we must add, its successful opponents.
The steadiness with which the priests of this establish
ment have persevered in this course, is a point of great
interest in their history, and should be carefully set to
view. The barefacedness with which it is professed, up
to the present hour, and by some of the most respectable
among them, amounts to a striking phenomenon. They
even reprobate Locke, the cautious, the modest, the
sober-minded Locke, for that which is even A/s greatest
distinction, the trusting to evidence; the seeking after
truth ; the desiring to know something beyond the tra
ditional propositions of others; the taking the only
course which leads to the advancement of human know
ledge, the improvement of the human mind, the pro
gress of the race in happiness and virtue. Listen to
what Copleston, then Head of a House, afterwards
bishop, and peer of parliament, thought it not disgrace
ful to him to say a few years ago. “ His ” (Locke’s)
�36
<The Church, and its Reform.
•' own opinions would have been entitled to greater re
spect,” (observe for what) “ if he had himself treated with
more respect the opinions of those who had gone before
him,” (opinions, you see, are entitled to respect, not on
account of the truth of them, but something else) “ and
the practice of sensible men of his own time, whose
judgment was worth more, in proportion as it was con
firmed by experience.”—Locke misbehaved, you see, by
seeking for evidence, and yielding to it when found.
Had he disregarded evidence, that is truth, and taken
passively the opinions given to him, he would have
merited the praise of Church of England priests; by
taking the course he did, no wonder he has been always
unpopular among them. “ The fight freedom, indeed,
and the confidence with which this philosopher attacks
all established notions, is one of the principal blemishes
in his character.”—Is not this instar omnium ? That is
one of the principal blemishes in the character of one of
the greatest philosophers who ever lived—so says Church
of Englandism—which alone enabled him to do any
good; namely, calling for evidence, marking where he
did not find it, but only some man’s ipse dixit instead,
and then proceeding honestly in search of it himself!
Good God! what sort of a place of education is it, where
such a course is held up, not for imitation, but repro
bation ?
There is not a finer specimen of the arts of the clergy
than their new-born zeal for the religious education of
the children of the poor. The religious education of the
children of the poor is not among the objects of the
Church of England; there is no provision for it in that
establishment; it was never a practice. Though the most
eminently religious of all the possible functions of a
minister of religion, a clergyman of the Church of
England as little thought it belonged to him, as to make
shoes for the children of his parishioners. Till the
other day, there was in England no education for the
children of the poor. They were absolutely uneducated,
�The Church, and its Reform.
37
in religion. as in every thing else. During all the ages
in which this state of things continued, the clergy saw no
occasion for this religious education they are now so hot
about. It is only when education in general, that is
knowledge, begins to be, that they think education in
religion is required. Non-education in religion was not
an evil, when in union with ignorance ; in union with
knowledge it becomes direful.—Can any body need help,
in reading this passage of clergy ?
So long as the people were in gross ignorance, their
servility to their priests was to be depended upon. The
moment light began to dawn upon them, it was, it seems,
not to be expected, unless particulai' artifice was used.
An expedient was fallen upon—that of clamouring for the
union of religious education with other education.
This, in the first place, was a great impediment to
education. It rendered it impossible for the children of
people of different sects to be educated together. This
was a capital stroke. It rendered the education of the
people much more expensive, therefore much less likely
to be earned into effect. It had other important con
sequences. It made all those benevolent individuals,
whose partialities ran towards the Church, place the funds
which they were disposed to contribute towards the
education of the poor under' the control of the Church,
which was skilled in the art of giving education without
instruction. From the evidence extracted by the com
mittee of the House of Commons on Education, last year,*
it appears, that their endeavours in the National Schools
are remarkable specimens of that art. They thus made
sure of having all the children of those who nominally
belong to the church in their own hands; and all the
security against the desire of knowledge which education
without instruction can yield.
The hollowness of the pretence is further seen in this,
that all the education in religion which for ages the
clergy thought necessary for the children of the poor,
* The year 1834
�38
The Church, and its Reform.
was only to make them able to repeat a few questions
of the Catechism, before confirmation ; and surely this
it would not be difficult to attain, if they were educated
in schools for all. What should hinder the parson of
the parish (it is his business if anything be), to assemble
the children of his flock as often as needful, for the pur
pose of imparting to them much more religious instruc
tion than this ? That the clergy are not in earnest in
their talk about the necessity of schooling in religion, is
manifest from this, that they have done nothing to have
it given. They have made use of the cry solely for the
purpose of making schooling difficult. But where is the
parson of the parish who takes the trouble to instruct
the children of his parishioners in refigion ? Where is
there one ordinance of the bishops rendering it impera
tive upon their clergy to fulfil the great duty of admi
nistering religious instruction to the young ? The whole
thing is a farce.
Having thus seen the importance of relieving the
parochial ministers of religion from all concern with
dogmas, we come to another question of no small import
ance, whether their labours of love should not also be
relieved from the incumbrance of ceremonies ?
The example of our Saviour shows, that in certain
circumstances they cannot be dispensed with; that
where the human mind is spell-bound in old habits, you
cannot obtain access to it except through the medium of
some of these habits.
We persuade ourselves, however, that we have attained
in this country such a degree of advancement, notwith
standing the efforts of the Church of England to pre
vent it, that we may dispense with the performance of
ceremonies on the part of those ministers of religion
whom the state appoints for the pure purpose of making
the people conform to the designs of a Being of perfect
wisdom and goodness.
The importance would be immense of constituting a
church without dogmas and ceremonies. It would be
�'The Churchy and its Reform.
39
truly a catholic church. Its ministers would be minis
ters of good, in the highest of all senses of the word, to
men of all religious denominations. All would share in
the religious services of such a church, and all would
share in the blessings which would result from them.
This is the true idea of a State religion ; and there is no
other. It ought to be stripped of all which is separa
ting ; of all that divides men from one another ; and to
present a point whereon, in the true spirit of reverence
to the perfect being, and love to one another, they may
all unite. So long as there are men who think dogmas
and ceremonies a necessary part of religion, those who
agree about such dogmas and ceremonies may have their
separate and respective institutions of their own provid
ing, for their inculcation and performance. But this is
extraneous to the provisions which alone it is proper' for
the State to make, and which ought to be so contrived as
to embrace, if it were possible, the whole population.
This, the scheme of which we have been endeavour
ing to convey the idea, we think, would effect. There
is no class of Christians, who could not join in the
labours of love of one who was going about continually
doing good ; whose more solemn addresses to his assem
bled parishioners would never have any other object
than to assimilate them more and more in heart and
mind to Him who is the author of all good, and the
perfection of wisdom and benevolence. Men could not
long attend a worship of this description, worship of the
perfect being, by acts of goodness, without acquiring
attachment to it, and learning by degrees that it is the
one thing needful. All would belong to this church ;
and after a short time would belong to no other. Fa.miliarized with the true worship of the Divine Being, they
would throw off the pseudo worship, dogmas and cere
monies. This is the true plan for converting Dissenters.
There would be no schism, if men had nothing to scind
about.
If the ministers of the Established Church had
�40
The Church 3 and its Reform.
nothing to do with dogmas, and nothing to do with
ceremonies, how would we have them employed ?
We have already expressed the general idea of their
employment. It would be assiduous endeavour to make
all the impressions on the minds of their parishioners
which conduce to good conduct; not merely negative, in
abstaining from ill; but positive, in doing all the good
to one another which the means put in their power
enable them to do.
It is very evident, that rules for the making of those
all-important impressions cannot be given. General rules
would be too vague to be of any use ; and the variety of
differing cases is so great, that it can only be met by
the resources of zeal and discretion in the daily inter
course between the minister and the individuals of his
flock. There are, however, certain things which may be
assumed as tests, in each instance, of the manner in
which the duties of the parochial minister are performed,
and which afford a guide to the manner in which stimnlants may be applied to him.
For example; we would give annual premiums to
those ministers in whose parishes certain favourable re
sults were manifested—in whose parishes there was the
smallest number of crimes committed within the year—
in whose parishes there was the smallest number of law
suits—in whose parishes there was the smallest number
of paupers—in whose parishes there was the smallest
number of uneducated children—in whose parishes
the reading-rooms were best attended, and supplied with
the most instructive books. We mention these as speci
mens. If there were any other results of the same kind,
of which the evidence could be made equally certain, there
would be good reason for including them in the same
provision. In this manner, would pretty decisive evi
dence be obtained of the comparative prevalence of good
conduct in the different parishes, and a motive of some
importance would be applied to the obtaining of it.
We think that infinite advantage might be derived
�'The Churchy and its Reform.
41
from the day of rest, if real Christian consideration,
exempt from all superstitious feelings, by which the
clergy have hitherto converted it to their own use, were
applied to it.
We think it of great importance, that all the families
of a parish should be got to assemble on the Sunday—
clean, and so dressed, as to make a favourable appear
ance in the eyes of one another. This alone is amelio
rating.
An address delivered to these assembled neighbours,
by their common friend and benefactor, on their means
of lessening the evils, and ensuring the happiness of one
another, the motives they have to this conduct, its har
mony with the laws of that benevolent Being of whom
our lives are the gift, and who has made the connexion
between our own happiness and the aid we afford to the
happiness of others inseparable—would come powerfully
in aid of all the other means employed to make salutary
impressions on their minds.
When the parishioners are assembled, it is of import
ance to consider in what other ways the meeting can be
turned to advantage.
One thing is very obvious : the opportunity would be
favourable of doing something to add to their education.
As often as the means were available, useful lectures on
various branches of art and science might be delivered
to them. Of what importance would it be to the nume
rous classes of workmen who make use of tools, to be
made acquainted, in a general way, with the mechanical
powers. What interest might be excited by chemical
experiments ; and what benefit derived from the know
ledge of the composition and decomposition of bodies,
which that science imparts. The science of botany, to
all those whose employment is in the fields, and to the
females whose monotonous lives are confined to their
cottages, would afford a great source of interest and de
light. Why should not even the wonders of the distant
world—the magnitude and laws of the celestial bodies,
�42
The Churchy and its Reform.
be laid open to their minds ? It will not be disputed
that lectures on the art of preserving the health, point
ing out the mistakes which ignorant people commit in
the physical management, both of themselves and their
children, and both the preventive and curative means
which they might employ, would be of infinite import,ance to them.
It is impossible to estimate too highly the benefit
which would be derived from good lectures to those
parochial assemblies on the education of their children :
not merely in sending them to school, and getting them
taught to read and write, but in moulding their tem
pers ; in making them gentle, moderate, forbearing, kind,
and deeply impressed with the importance to themselves
of habits of industry and frugality.
Not merely the mode of conducting themselves towards
their children—the mode of conducting themselves to
wards their servants is an important topic. On the right
and the wrong in this matter, in which the grossest errors
are habitually committed, good teaching would be of the
greatest utility. Even in the mode of training and conduct
ing their beasts, there is great good to be done by proper
instruction—in order to habituate them to the thought
that gentleness is more effectual than cruelty—that
when the animal disappoints our expectation, it is not
by design, but by its not knowing what we desire, and
that beating it for it knows not what, is no means of
correction to the animal, but fuel to one of the worst of
our own distempers—the disposition to inflict evil upon
whatsoever or whosoever is the cause of immediate an
noyance to ourselves. No man practises ferocity towards
animals who would not, with a little more temptation,
practise it towards his fellow-men ; and this is a pro
pensity which may be effectually rooted out.
There are even branches of political science, in which
it would be of importance that the people should receive
instruction in their weekly assemblies. They cannot,
for example, be too completely made to understand the
�'The Church, and its Reform.
4.3
laws which determine the rate of wages—from ignorance
of which rise most of their contentions with their
masters, as well as the other evils which they endure.
Indeed, a knowledge of the laws of nature, by operation
of which the annual produce of the labour of the com
munity is distributed, is the best of all modes of recon
ciling them to that inequality of distribution which they
see takes place, and which there are people ignorant or
wicked enough to tell them, is all in violation of their
rights, because it is by their labour that everything is
produced.
We go farther: we say there is no branch of political
knowledge which ought not to be carefully taught to the
people in their parochial assemblies on the day of rest.
If it be an established maxim of reason, that there is no
security for the good use of the powers of government,
but through the check imposed upon it by the repre
sentatives of the people, and no security that the repre
sentatives will duly apply that check, unless the people
make them, by a right use of the power of choosing and
dismissing them, it is evident how necessary a condition
of good government it is that political knowledge should
be diffused among the people. •
And the elements of the politics are not abstruse.
There is nothing in them above the comprehension of a
sensible man of the most numerous class. They relate
to nothing but the common-sense means for the attain
ment of a common-sense object—the means of com
pelling those in whose hands the powers of government
are placed, to make the best use of them. Questions,
no doubt, arise in the exercise of those powers, which
are exceedingly difficult, and require the highest measure
of knowledge and understanding rightly to determine
them : the question of war for example. The decision
whether the known calamities of war, or the evils
threatened by the unchecked proceedings of another
state, are, in any instance, the greatest, may require the
most extensive range of knowledge, and the utmost skill
�44
The Church, and its Reform.
and sagacity in placing the exact value on the causes of
future events.
Even the elements of jurisprudence might be taught
to the people with great advantage in their Sunday
meetings. The art and science of protection might be
opened up to them in a manner which they would find
in the highest degree interesting. How usefully might
they be made to perceive that to them, above all others,
it is the most necessary ? The rich man can always do
a great deal for his own protection. The poor man—
unless the means of many, combined with art, are ap
plied to protect him—-is totally deprived of it. The in
stitution of laws and tribunals is that combination ; and
the essence of them it is not difficult to unfold. To
protect a man in the use of what is his own, the means
must be provided of determining what is his own—that
'is, a civil code must be constructed. To prevent viola
tions of what the law has declared to be a man’s own—
that is, declared to be his rights—the law must deter
mine what acts shall be considered violations of them,
and what penalty shall be annexed to each : that is, a
criminal code must be made. This is all plain : and the
development of it would convey, even to the common
people, the most useful ideas.
The necessity of a third party, to settle disputes, and
afford redress of wrongs, is a maxim of common sense,
familiar to all. This is the establishment of courts of
justice ; and the discussion of that subject is merely the
inquiry, by the instrumentality of what means can the
settlement of questions of right, and the redress of
wrongs, be most effectually and cheaply accomplished.
Not only is there nothing abstruse in this development
—it is a subject, the discussion of which, as coming
home to their businesses and bosoms, is calculated to
excite the most lively interest, and exceedingly to im
prove their minds.
So much, then, for the serious matters with which
the minds of the people might be usefully engaged in
�The Church, and its Reform.
45
their parochial meetings on the day of rest. But further
than this, it is well known to those who have made the
principles of human nature their study, that few things
tend more effectually to make impressions on the minds
of men. favourable to kindness, to generosity, to feeling
joy with the joys, sorrow with the sorrows of others ;
from which the disposition to mutual helpfulness mainly
proceeds,—than their being habituated to rejoice to
gether—to partake of pleasures in common. Upon this
principle it is that the amusements of the common
people are looked upon by philosophical minds as a
matter of grave importance. We think that social
amusements, of which the tendency would be amelio
rating with respect to the people, might be invented for
the parochial meetings. They should be of a gentle
character ; harmonizing rather with the moderate, than
the violent emotions ; promoting cheerfulness not pro
fuse merriment. We can enter but a very little way
into the details of this subject. When the time shall
come for thinking of it seriously, it will deserve a very
careful and minute consideration.
If there were as many people in earnest about religion
as there are who pretend to be ; if there were as many im
bued and animated with the spirit of true religion, as
there are besotted with dogmas and ceremonies, all the
difficulties which present themselves would be overcome.
Have not those who were interested in the work got men
to submit to whatever was most repugnant to their nature
and feelings ? to fall in love with propositions incredi
ble ? to practice tiresome, and endless, and often painful
tricks, in supposed service of the Deity, which sink the
performers of them to the level of monkeys ? And can
we despair if similar pains were taken, of getting them
to do what, at every step, would be delightful, and from
which they would derive the greatest of all conceivable
pleasures, the consciousness, the heart-felt assurance, of
rising higher and higher in the scale of virtue and intel
ligence every day ! Assuredly, the best means of carry-
�46
The Church, and its Reform.
ing on the moral culture of the people will not speedily
present themselves to the people, if they are not aided •
and if the influence of those whom they are always ready
to follow is not employed to put them in the right path,
and urge them forward in it to a certain extent. But for
the accomplishment of all this, we should rely much on
the efforts of such a class of parochial ministers as we
have just been describing ; who might be truly styled the
servants of God, and the friends of man ; who would do
much, by their own influence, and much, by stimulating
men of station, and wealth to employ their influence in
the same beneficent direction.
P. Q.
PRINTED BY C. W. KETNELL, LITTLE PCLTENET STREET, W.
�
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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The church, and its reform
Description
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Place of publication: 46 p. ; 19 cm.
Collation: 46 p. ; 19 cm.
Notes: Signed 'P.Q.' Includes bibliographical references.
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Q., P.
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1867
Publisher
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Thomas Scott
Subject
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Church of England
Rights
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<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br />This work (The church, and its reform), identified by Humanist Library and Archives, is free of known copyright restrictions.
Identifier
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RA1608
Format
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Church of England-History